Ninth annual Super Mammoth Sale at St. Joe's will be original organizer's last
Press release:
This year’s Super Mammoth Sale at St. Joe's is expected to be the largest event to date and will also be the last sale organized by longtime volunteer Kathy Stefani. The event, dubbed WNY’s largest indoor garage sale, is in its 9th year and has raised more than $100,000 for Catholic education. Earlier this year, a tearful Stefani told officials at St. Joseph School that she will retire at the conclusion of this year’s sale saying she had been “Called to spend more time with her family.”
In John 6:12, disciples were told to “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost,” and in that fashion, Stefani has turned others’ junk into treasure for the school. Her yearly work includes collecting, storing, cleaning and selling hundreds of thousands of donated items that are stored at seven different sites. Nearly 150 volunteers are utilized, including two dozen cashiers for the one-day sale.
The event has grown from humble roots when Stefani held a community garage sale to benefit St. Anthony’s Church in Batavia in 2005. It has grown every year since and last year raised more than $29,000, with all proceeds benefiting St. Joe’s.
This year’s event will, of course, include stalwart items like antiques, books, artwork, furniture and household goods but in addition, there will be over 250 die-cast cars and trucks for sale, many of them still in their original boxes. The donation that came from a parishioner who had lost her husband and wanted to the see the collection sold for a good cause.
“Kathy does a remarkable job and is irreplaceable,” said Karen Green, the school’s principal. “She has poured her heart and soul into this event and writes personal thank you notes to everyone that donates an item. She has made Mammoth one of our top fund-raisers and we will be hard-pressed to find a successor.”
The Super Mammoth will be held from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 6th at the school located at the corner of Main and Summit streets in Batavia. The doors will be closed from 12:30-12:45 p.m. and the shelves will be restocked. There will also be a chicken BBQ or BBQ ribs available for purchase. For more information call 585.343.6154.
